I think high-capacity cards might be cool of they were fast enough. Downloads only? No. That would limit their audience too much. Not enough people have fast enough internet or maybe they have caps placed on their service. Or they won't want to expand their storage to get more games, etc. I don't see it happening. Another thing I don't see happening is the name "Xbox 720".

I fully agree. The cards would provide several benefits to us consumers, provided the price of games doesn't go up. But they'd definitely cost more to make, so we'll have to see what ends up happening.

if they used carts the system could one time write to them to mark them used, and thus not useable again until paid to be unlocked (ala the £10 to play some games now online when 2nd hand) .. this would destroy the 2nd hand market and they i guess could off set the extra cost of the production against the xtra ££ they would make from either people buying more new stuff or paying to unlock 2nd hand stuff

Yes but that wouldnt happen quickly on the console scene. They rely heavily on their first week sales. Becuase of this sort of thing it would be lower, so they would leave it at a higher price point for longer to get more returns.

Digital distribution costs a lot less though, so smaller games would prefer it and could just put their titles cheaper right from the off. It's why most Indie games are download only. Boxing and shipping to stores and then all the used sales costs a lot more than just putting your game up for digital distribution.

So Shinobido 2 could go for £29.99, maybe less, instead of around £40. They'll make a lot more returns in doing so, you spend less and generally get more returns. The future is bright!

Digital distribution only is definitely happening, but I think this generation isn't the tipping scale. MS should keep a disc tray in their console and test the waters of DD; try and publicise it more and sway people to use it with a few incentives. And then for the next gen, ditch disc altogether once their playerbase has had a chance to get more acquainted with it, or don't, depending on how well it was received.

Dumping it straight away seems a bit like diving in the deep-end tbh. Nintendo are going to be distributing full retail games across the Nintendo Network for Wii U, but it still has a disc tray.

it happens on PC as well tho day 1 prices for digital download versions on Steam are ALWAYS more than the day 1 retail price .. utterly dumb .. it should be the other way round. Just greed tbh that its not